Among the conventionally-known structures for mounting a vehicular canister (i.e., vehicular-canister mounting structures) are ones where a fuel tank is disposed underneath a vehicle body floor and a vehicular canister is mounted on a vehicle body framework member disposed underneath the vehicle body floor. It has been conventional to provide the vehicular-canister mounting structures of this type in proximity to the fuel tank with a view to efficiently treating gasoline vapor produced within the fuel tank.
Japanese patent application Laid-Open Publication No. 2006-160044 discloses one example of such vehicular-canister mounting structures, where the vehicular canister is disposed behind the fuel tank. More specifically, the vehicular-canister mounting structure disclosed in the 2006-160044 publication includes: the fuel tank disposed underneath the vehicle body floor, the vehicular canister (hereinafter sometimes referred to as “canister”) disposed behind and in proximity to the fuel tank and fixed to the underside of a cross member; a sub frame provided underneath the canister; and a rear frame provided behind the canister.
However, with the vehicular-canister mounting structure disclosed in the 2006-160044 publication, where the canister is fixed to the underside of the cross member, the canister can not be moved in a front-rear direction of the vehicle body when the vehicle has had a rear-end collision with another vehicle or object. Further, because the vehicular canister is disposed behind and in proximity to the fuel tank in the vehicular-canister mounting structure disclosed in the No. 2006-160044 publication, the canister has nowhere to escape to when the vehicle has had a rear-end collision.